Meditation
by Blazichu
Summary: Or, perhaps more appropriately, the calm before the storm.


Don knew he should have been meditating, or, at least, pretending to; that was why they were here, after all. Instead of even attempting the practice, he was sitting, cross legged, idly looking around the dojo. Luckily, (and a touch unwisely) Master Splinter had left the four on their own.

It took very little observation to figure what each of his brothers were doing; Leo, of course, was meditating, as they'd been instructed. The olive turtle didn't even need to glance at his eldest sibling to verify this. Donnie himself was sandwiched between Raphael and Michelangelo, both of whom were in varying states of sleep. Raph, for instance, was completely unconscious, despite sitting just-so. To the right, Mikey kept jerking awake after every few minutes of dozing; boredom _was_ the youngest's worst enemy, after all.

The next time Mike was a bit more aware, Don nudged him gently, and the younger nearly leapt from his sitting position; it was quite fortunate that he didn't yelp.

Suddenly wide awake and rather confused, he stared at his older brother, bewildered, until Don caught his eye and nodded toward the others. This only furthered Mike's puzzlement, and finally the older of the two reached up carefully, flicked at the tail of his bandana, glanced back at their siblings, and offered Mike a decidedly mischievous smirk. Mikey blinked and leaned backwards, only _just_ keeping from falling back on his shell, and grinned when he caught sight of what Don had been trying to tell him.

Leo and Raph were sitting next to one another, yes, but tilted ever-so-slightly away from each other. Almost immediately, his eyes flicked down to their bandanas, and his smile widened. It would take a careful hand, sure, but this was about as comatose as either was going to get…and the opportunity was _not_ something that Michelangelo wanted to pass up.

Mike resumed his former position and offered his brother a thumbs-up, mouthing 'Awesome idea, Donnie!'. Don smiled, but didn't move, unwilling to jeopardize the mission. Conversely, Mike gently rose to his feet and crept behind their usual line, crouching behind his oldest siblings. He hesitated, for a moment, wondering if it could _really_ be this easy… but Leo was obviously off in la-la land...and Raph was practically _snoring_! Mikey glanced back to Don, who was watching out of the corner of his eye; his head tilted not even a centimeter, and his expression was somewhere between reassuring and impish. This just egged Mike on, and he reached to grab one red mask tail and one blue. Nothing happened. He actually tied the two together in a knot, but there was still no response. Confidence building, he repeated the performance with the remaining mask tails, and tip-toed back to his spot beside Donnie, who, it seemed, was barely containing his laughter.

Mike grinned and shrugged, before returning to his pseudo-meditative position. The time would come, for this trick to play out, and now was not it. Every good prankster had to have _some_ patience, after all.

The time for the revelation _did_ come, about an hour later, by which time even Donatello had nearly dozed off. Master Splinter re-entered the dojo, and immediately caught sight of what had been done. His whiskers twitched, and he fought down a smile, wondering which of his youngest was responsible for this. That was quite odd, actually; usually, it only took a glance to identify the culprit of these pranks… but neither Michelangelo nor Donatello looked particularly excited…in fact, both seemed to be more drowsy than anything else. With a shake of his head, Splinter decided to let the matter go; it would become obvious, once all of his sons were completely awake.

Why was he letting the prank slide, in the first place? Since this had been possible to accomplish, then both Leonardo and Raphael clearly needed to work on their awareness… and three of the four turtles needed to work on their meditation skills, in general.

"My sons,"

The response was immediate, the four all moved to get up…but only two succeeded, and both of them nearly fell down with the resulting laughter, indirectly revealing that both had been aware of the knotted bandanas. _That_ certainly answered Splinter's question.

On the floor, the victims of this trick looked stunned; they'd cracked their heads together in the attempt to get up, and their expressions clearly asked _what the shell_ had just happened. From several feet away, the peals of laughter redoubled and Donatello and Michelangelo practically fell against one another.

Baffled, Leo raised a hand to the back of his head, and instantly found the problem… well, Raph found the problem too, but in a completely different way. He'd been facing the opposite direction of Leo, and had a pretty good guess that the two who seemed to be relying entirely on one another for support were to blame for this. Where Leonardo's conclusion had to do with the extra knots tied in their bandanas, Raphael's was based solely on their hysterical younger brothers.

Don and Mike only briefly managed to contain their laughter, glance at their red banded brother, and then one another, before cracking up again and fleeing the dojo. Splinter rolled his eyes at the two, and focused, instead, on untying the knots (which, he now felt confident in saying, were Michelangelo's handy work).

"Yeah, you jokers _better_ run!" Shouted Raphael, instinctively lunging forward, worsening the situation even further.

All the way in the kitchen, the youngest brothers grinned at one another, having heard the bellow.

"We are _so_ dead when Master Splinter unties them…" Donnie pointed out, failing to keep the amusement from the comment.

"It was _totally_ worth it, though!" Mikey sniggered, "Whadda ya say we… 'vacate the premises' before they come to kick our butts?"

"…Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Junkyard?"

"I was thinking April's."

"Mikey, that's the first place they'll look…"

"Well…yeah, but don't _you_ want to tell her about this one?"

Don's silence was telling.

"C'mon then, Einstein, lets move before Master Splinter releases the hounds."

There was another spell of quiet, as they made their escape, but after successfully leaving the lair…

"What do you think we should try, next time?"

…Michelangelo had never been happier with his decision to get Donnie out of the lab, more often.

* * *

Completely random, but it seemed like a good idea. No beta-reader, so I was the only one to glance over it; feel free to tell me anything you like, be it about errors or whatever.


End file.
